This whole episode felt gross. I'm especially annoyed because Gilt is run by a bunch of smarmy fresh-out-of-b-schoolers from one of the smarmier East Coast schools, I think Columbia, and this reflects poorly on how MBA students utilize their education. Anyway (/soapbox), the point is that there will probably be a time in each of our careers where we think "What our company needs is more people to install our application so that they will see our marketing," and in the rush to meet the metric we will find a tempting option whereby we completely torpedo our goal. I hope that when that time comes for me, I'm able to recognize it and see the forest for the trees.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Corporate Social Media Fail
Our class on metrics reminded me of a recent experience I had with Gilt Groupe. They had some sweepstakes where you could win a ridiculous amount of credit on their site, but to enter you had to "like" them. I shop at Gilt a fair amount (portable BBQ grill for $20!!) so I broke my rule of "never 'like' anything" and "liked" Gilt. Then they hit me with a curveball: the "like" thing was just to get to the entry form. To submit the form, I had to install the application and give it access to some of my personal Facebook information.
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You should take a look at Gap's new Facebook promotion. If you 'like' them, they will donate $1 to charity. On one hand, it is really difficult not to do it. I mean, all you have to do, is click on a button and you help charity. So, who would not be willing to do that? At the same time, if you think about it, they are essentially using charity to guilt you into receiving their promotional materials.
ReplyDeleteWe all hope that when the time comes we will do the right thing. Coming out of b-school, it seems like we are taught to look for how to make a quick buck/the easy money from the under-educated public / competitor. That's the advantage of being business smarter!
ReplyDeleteBut, I agree, it still feels dirty. I think this and class others really teach you what other companies are doing.
Yeah, I fell for that one on Guilt as well. I am guessing the marketing managers felt pretty smart coming up with that scheme. Its really important not to abuse your customers goodwill
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